You Are in Charge of DC & MARVEL COMICS

[thechrishaley]

Due to unknown cosmic forces beyond your control or comprehension YOU have just been given total control over DC and Marvel Comics!

This new 4-Color godhood comes with only these rules:
You can hire/use any living creator on any book or books you like (assuming it is reasonable to believe they could meet the production demands you place on them), BUT each company can produce no more than 10 titles per month.

WHAT ARE YOUR TEN TEAMS AND TITLES FOR EACH COMPANY?!

Feel free to also include as much or as little pie in the sky dreaming about any ideas for where you'd like to see your creative teams take their books, come the demon Etrigan.

BEGIN!

[Name]

DC
1 Francis Manapul/Brian Buccatello-flash
2 Grant Morrison/Bill Sienkiewicz-Hawkman
3 Joe Casey/Tom Scioli - Fourth World(maybe bimonthly)
4 Curt Franklin/Chris Haley/Various - DC Presents(mix of short features by up and comers and humor features poking fun at DC)
5 Jeff Lemire/Alberto Ponticelli - Frankenstein(so good. too good to drop)
6 Fred Van Lente/Jordi Bernet - Bat Lash
7 Justin Gray/Jimmy Palmiotti/Moritat - Jonah Hex
8 Nick Spencer/RB Silva - Jimmy Olsen
9 Chris Roberson/Mike Allred - Superman
10 Scott Snyder/some cowriter who can cut his writing down to size/Greg Capullo - Batman
Marvel
1 Jonathan Hickman/Jamie McKelvie-Invincible Iron Man
2 Kurt Busiek/Carlos Pacheco-Avengers(the future ones from Avengers Forever, with Noh-Varr and Songbird)
3 Jason Aaron/James Stokoe - Terror, Inc.(mini, loose release schedule)
4 Warren Ellis/Various - Team X(basically his Secret Avengers type stuff)
5 Fred Van Lente/Chris Burnham - Marvel Monsters
6 Joe Casey/Chris Bachalo - X-men
7 Paul Cornell/Yanick Paquette - Excalibur
8 Mark Waid/Marcos Martin/Paolo Rivera - Daredevil
9 Matt Fraction/David Aja - Iron Fist
10 Jeff Parker/Kev Walker - Hulk

[Koltreg]

I limited myself to everyone on one title.

DC
Action Comics - Roberson got me to love Superman more than Morrison. Roberson really understands Superman. I also love Buckingham's Fables work, I think it would be strong.
Writer - Chris Roberson
Artist - Mark Buckingham

Detective Comics - I've heard great things, no reason to change what works. Let Snyder do what he wants.
Writer - Scott Snyder
Artist - Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion

Elseworlds Presents - I love Elseworlds and I'd love a series of just the fun ideas in miniseries of 4 or so.
Writer - Various
Artist - Various

Fear Agency - Sort of like Frankenstein meets Justice League Dark - the guys who deal with horror and the things that normal people shouldn't. Let Lemire do it all, he respects the characters and can make things fun.
Writer - Jeff Lemire
Artist - Jeff Lemire

Flash - in Supergods, Morrison commented that he always loved the series growing up, I think seeing something that he wasn't expected to do would be wonderful. Science and action!
Writer - Grant Morrison
Artist - Frazer Irving

Green Lantern - Sturges is fun with his Jack of Fables and that's what I want to see in Green Lantern, explore through space and meet with aliens. Javi Fernandez did a lot of fun art on the Outsider miniseries as well.
Writer - Matt Sturges
Artist - Javi Fernandez

History Of The Universe - backstories on characters with short runs by various artists for fun stuff. any character for a 4 issue mini run or so.
Writer - Various
Artist - Various

Justice League Of America - I really like his Flash work. Let's just go and see what he does.
Writer - Francis Manapul
Artist - Francis Manapul

Legion Of Super Heroes - I like Cornell working with teams and getting the Knight and Squire team together would lead to some fun stuff, if nothing else a lot of weird characters.
Writer - Paul Cornell
Artist - Jimmy Broxton

The New Gods - Rozum did a wonderful job on his creation Xombi which was an awesome comic with lots of big ideas. Give that guy work on Xombi with
Writer - John Rozum
Artist -

Marvel

Avengers - Get a big explosive action-y book, repeat.
Writer - Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente
Artist - Gary Frank

Defenders - let Fraction and Dodson do what they were planning.
Writer - Matt Fraction
Artist - Terry Dodson

Fantastic Four - Keep on going Hickman
Writer - Jonathan Hickman
Artist - Steve Epting

Hulks - Jeff Parker is great, I love Hardman's art. Why not let Parker have run on all of the Hulks. Free to pick and choose which to use.
Writer - Jeff Parker
Artist - Gabriel Hardman

Marvel Adventures - 4 issue miniseries collections, various teams and comic styles - mix things from romance to kung fu to obscure characters.
Writer - Various
Artist - Various

Project X - the crazy team book - just let Warren Ellis do whatever he wants with Immonen drawing.
Writer - Warren Ellis
Artist - Stuart Immonen

Runaways - old Runaways team back together. Make it something you can get everyone to read and enjoy
Writer - Brian K Vaughn
Artist - Sara Pichelli

Spider-man - Slott was my first good Spider-man writer, I like what he does with continuity and I like how he works Spider-man. Combine that with Rivera and man, I would buy the book.
Writer - Dan Slott
Artist - Paolo Rivera

Thunderbolts - Jason Aaron being given the supervillain community and Adam Kubert - what isn't to like?
Writer - Jason Aaron
Artist - Adam Kubert

X-men - Avengers Academy expanded with the school idea but combined with the X-men as well. Yay!
Writer - Christos Gage
Artist - Mike McKone

[Josh]

I'm going to do this after I walk my dog, but I would like to preemptively apologize for running marvel comics into the ground with my love of early 90s characters...BUT I WAS 12 THEN, AND I'M A GOD NOW, SO SUCK IT UP.

[Josh]

WORK IN PROGRESS

Let's see.

Action Comics starring Superman:
Mark Waid writing with Andrea Di Vito's art- Waid's done a lot with Superman through the years, but he's never really had the chance to just do "his run," which is what I'd like to see. He can use the continuity established in Birthright or a new one, up to him. Di Vito's got a classic comic book style, which makes sense with Superman.

Detective Comics starring Batman:
Ed Brubanker with John Romita Jr. on art- Bru had a very nice run that was held in check by continuity BS and mega storylines. He's got free reign to do whatever he wants, with JRJR, an artist born to do a bat book.

Wonder Woman:
Justice League:Kurt Busiek writing with John Cassiday on art.

Green Lantern Corp: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning writing with

Flash: John Rogers writing with Cully Hamner (why yes, I was a fan of their blue beetle run).

Suicide Squad: Gail Simone and John Ostrander writing, David Mazzucchelli (we'll be hitting the middle between Ostrander's suicide squad and Simone's secret six stuff)
Blue Beetle: Sterling Gates writing with Jamal Igle on art (I also liked them on Supergirl quite a bit).
Teen Titans: Christos Gage with
Static:

Marvel:

Fantastic Four:
Avengers: With Olivier Coipel
Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy: Abnett and Lanning writing with
New Warriors: Fabian Nicieza and mark Bagley- Go with the Bandit as Night Thrasher set up, put Darkhawk in place of Nova (who is off doing cosmic stuff but will stop by) use the Time displaced Namorita from the Nova run and BOOM, I HAVE MY CHILDHOOD BACK. maybe later just flat out resurrect Night Thrasher and more completely exonerate Speedball, perhaps with clones.
Spider-Man
X-men
Captain America
Daredevil
Luke Cage and the Iron Fist

[Maxy Barnard]

Let's see how far I get before I just make this cancelled titles I want back.

DC

The Spirit
Writer - David Hine
Artist - Moritat
Damn, only got as far as the first one. But it was one of the best titles DC's put out in a good while, and I think there's still many good tales to be told with this team.

Superman
Writer - Darwyn Cooke
Artist - Tim Sale
This probably isn't the best idea, but their combo on Superman: Kryptonite is my favourite Superman story, and I'd love to see them do more as a team on the character

Wonder Woman
Writer - Brian Azzarello
Artist - Cliff Chiang
Wouldn't change a thing

Supergirl
Writer - Mike Johnson and Mike Green
Artist - Mahmud Asrar
Couldn't change a thing

Teen Titans
Writer - Sholly Fisch
Artist - Wes Craig
The best all-ages writer about at the moment and one of the best 'cartoony' style artists? A no-brainer for me. Only editorial edict on this title is that it needs to be appropriate for all readers, even if that means bloodless fighting.

Demon Knights
Writer - Paul Cornell
Artist - Diogenes Neves
Again, nothing I'd change, and it needs to exist, as a very different title to what we normally see from DC

Batman
Writer - Fabian Nicieza
Artist - Norm Breyfogle
A solid writer who usually hits pretty well, and a good artist. Simple as.

Justice Earth
Writer - James Robinson
Artist - Cully Hamner
Robinson's JLA had promise it never got to deliver, so with the right artist and the whole of the DC universe to tap into for team members mission to mission I think he could do great things

Batwoman
Writer - JH Williams III & WH Blackman
Artist - Amy Reeder
Batwoman needs to exist, and I just about prefer amy reeder over williams. So... yeah

DC Universe Presents
Writer - Various
Artist - Various
A solid concept, and a way to deliver fan favourite characters without having to put them out there by themselves. Perhaps an extra-sized split book between two characters at once.

MARVEL

X-23
Writer - Marjorie Liu
Artist - Phil Noto
I wouldn't cancel it

Generation X
Writer - Mike Carey
Artist - Dan Acuna
A team I'd love to see together again (or whoever's left of the team), with a solid pairing who do no wrong.

Avengers Academy
Writer - Christos Gage
Artist - Juan Bobillo
A wacky artist change to a title thats only problem is a lack of a power artist to make it really stand above everything else

Nomad
Writer - Sean McKeever
Artist - Filipe Andrade
This one's just for me.

Spider-Man
Writer - Zeb Wells
Artist - Giuseppe Camuncoli
A quality artist with my preferred spider-man writer should mix for a great series. In my mind.

COSMIC
Writer - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artists - Brad Walker & Various
A double-sized split title, with a main story following the Guardians of the Galaxy and a rotating set of one-shots highlighting different cosmic characters and connecting to the main story

... Okay that's all I can think of for Marvel. Mind's gone blank.

[thechrishaley]

(11-16-2011 04:21 PM)Name Wrote:  DC
1 Francis Manapul/Brian Buccatello-flash
2 Grant Morrison/Bill Sienkiewicz-Hawkman
3 Joe Casey/Tom Scioli - Fourth World(maybe bimonthly)
4 Curt Franklin/Chris Haley/Various - DC Presents(mix of short features by up and comers and humor features poking fun at DC)
5 Jeff Lemire/Alberto Ponticelli - Frankenstein(so good. too good to drop)
6 Fred Van Lente/Jordi Bernet - Bat Lash
7 Justin Gray/Jimmy Palmiotti/Moritat - Jonah Hex
8 Nick Spencer/RB Silva - Jimmy Olsen
9 Chris Roberson/Mike Allred - Superman
10 Scott Snyder/some cowriter who can cut his writing down to size/Greg Capullo - Batman

You've got some great interesting choices there and I'm pretty sure I would buy every one of these books, but no ladies with their own book? Jimmy Olsen and Bat Lash, but no Wonder Woman?

It's your world, so no judgment, just trying to foster a little discussion.

[Koltreg]

One of the things that I was thinking about when doing my own list in regards to women is that I can't really think of too many female comic artists or writers which I say simply as not being as well read as others but it is a thing where because there are so few women (like the biggest I can think of is Gail Simone whose work I haven't read because money) and they don't have 3 or 4 projects.

I do think female characters are also still a large minority. My own list had no female main characters that were not team books but I see it more as the status of the comic industry where female characters don't necessarily sell as well, partially because most of them are either not as strongly written or because in what is traditionally and inconveniently viewed as a male only industry, female characters are still mainly stuck as sexual objects.

That said I've enjoyed most of the books with female mains that I've read like Spider-girl, Zatanna and the She Hulks mini plus a few more but from those three I listed none of them are based fully on their own idea. They are male variants of preexisting characters (you could discount Zatanna if you don't consider Zatara and Spider-girl started as Arana - but still).

[themonkeybar]

For each company I tried to think of which books should ALWAYS be published by them and then found a creative team (trying to avoid current line-ups as much as possible). There are so many other creators I'd love to put on other books but since there are limitations:


DC

1. Action Comics(Superman) – Neil Gaiman with Carlos Pacheco ~Gaiman could add that sense of grandeur and high adventure that Superman needs while Pacheco can make him look suitably iconic on art.
2. Detective Comics (Batman) – Darwyn Cooke with Tim Sale ~ Cooke seems to understand Batman and his rogues better than anyone and Sale has created an iconic Gotham in his Bat-projects.
3. The Power of Shazam – Nate Cosby with Evan Shaner ~ if they can't make this book work with the passion they both have for the Marvel family no one can.
4. Wonder Woman – Mike Carey with Jill Thompson ~ Carey understands strong female characters and can write them well, Thompson's art would then elevate it all.
5. The Flash – Mark Waid with Francis Manapul ~ Both love the Flash, both have been involved with the best Flash runs of the last 20 years.
6. Green Lantern – Jeff Smith ~ Just let him do his own thing with the GL mythos.
7. Doom Patrol – Mike Mignola with Becky Cloonan ~ Exploring the occult and 'dark side' of the DCU, Mignola is good with team books of the unusual kind and Cloonan seems to excel when she's challenged to draw weird stuff. They seem to be on the same wave length.
8. JLA – Jonathan Hickman with Dustin Ngyuen ~ Hickman can do epic adventures and Ngyuen has experience of big team books from Wildcats.
9. Teen Titans – Bryan Lee O Malley with Skotty Young ~ Basically just the young, fun, teen book that looks wild which Titans should be.
10. Legion of Super Heroes – Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with Humberto Ramos ~ Abnett and Lanning did the best run on Legion ever so bring them back, Ramos is good with teen books. Making this a kind of future/sister book to TT.

Marvel
(Marvel have many iconic female characters, sadly they all seem to be in team books rather than solo and I'd have them as power players in their team books)

1. Captain America – Ed Brubaker with Chris Samnee ~ Just a match made in heaven for Cap. Brubaker knows the character backwards and Samnee's art is just stunning.
2. Thor – Joe Kelly with Chris Bachalo ~ Kelly can do the off the wall stuff that Asgard might demand, Bachalo would be great for the gods and fantastical elements. (One rule for this book, Thor doesn't die so bloody often)
3. Iron Man – Paul Pope ~ Everything Pope has done already convinces me he'd be a great match for Iron Man.
4. Spider-Man – Roger Langridge with Mike Allred ~ Langridge had that classic/modern feel in Thor: TMA with a sense of fun perfect for Spidey, Allred's art would match that perfectly.
5. Daredevil – Brian Azzarello with John Romita Jr. ~ Azzarello is great at street level stuff and John Romita Jr just does Daredevil so well.
6. Fantastic Four – Warren Ellis with Pascual Ferry ~ Ellis has big ideas that can take the FF anywhere, Ferry is versatile enough to take anything Ellis throws at him.
7. Uncanny X-men – Brian Wood with Joe Madureira ~ Brian Wood is great with odd powers and youth issues as seen on Demo. Focus on the school for a classic X-men book and I just love Joe Mad on an X-book.
8. Avengers – Rick Remender with Olivier Coipel ~ Remender is taking over Secret Avengers already, just give him the main book to play with and Oli Coipel to make it all look pretty.
9. Dr. Strange and the Defenders – Brian K Vaughan with Marcos Martin ~ Exploring the mystical and occult side of the Marvel U. This is pretty much like Doom Patrol in my DC but reunites these guys from their Dr Strange mini a few years ago.
10. Inhumans – Grant Morrison with Jae Lee ~ Morrison and the Inhumans seem like a perfect match and since Lee's run on the book previously I can't really imagine anyone else drawing this.

That's the first 10 books for each company, each team are free to do whatever they like for as long as they like BUT when they're done, I'd relaunch the book with a new number 1 and a clean slate for the new team to take over and do their thing, for a more fluid less 'canonical' continuity. (This seems really long, apologies)

[Zachary Whitten]

I'm going to break the rules and only do six, and only for one company.

X-Men: The Dream Never Dies
w: Jonathan Hickman
a: Phil Noto
(Because a man can dream.)
This book would be the original team. Scott, Jean, Hank, Warren, Bobby and the Professor. It would be the X-Men version of All-Star Superman, a palette cleanser that line so badly needs.

Iron Man
w: Warren Ellis
a: Katsuhiro Otomo
Ellis understands manga, understands Iron Man. And when you couple that with the guy that did Akira…you have a book that could sell tons on any continent.

Nextwave: No Wave
w: Matt Fraction
a: Annie Wu
Sequel book to Nextwave. Fraction gets to do the nuts-o stuff in Cassanova, while rebirthing some forgotten Marvel properties. And Annie Wu does nuts-o better than anyone.

Olympians: Gods for Hire
w: Benito Cerano
p: Nate Bellegard
Ares, Phobos and Hercules open an office in Chicago as investigators and problems solvers of the supernatural. I loved Hector Plasm so much it hurts, and I want these guys to play in the big leagues.

Doctor Strange: Strange Corps
w: Simon Spurrier
a: Frazier Irving
Doctor Strange is tasked with training his own SHIELD response team. Madness and beautiful surrealist art ensue.

Marvel Events
w: Rotating
a: Rotating
A regular, on-going book where a rotating crew gets to play with all of Marvel's big toys. All imprint-wide events are now restrained to the pages of this book. No more crossovers killing books midstory.

....of which that last one is a cop-out, but one I think would fix a ton of problems.

I'll muse on some DC stuff and see what I can come up with.

EDIT: Also only doing 6 since a lot of the response above are way better than anything I could come up with.

Like this:

(11-17-2011 06:45 AM)Maxy Barnard Wrote:  COSMIC
Writer - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artists - Brad Walker & Various
A double-sized split title, with a main story following the Guardians of the Galaxy and a rotating set of one-shots highlighting different cosmic characters and connecting to the main story

Wait! One more! Either a brilliant or terrible idea.

Thanos of Titan
w: Ed Brubaker
a: Sean Philips
I have no idea where this would go, but you've got a villain that's in love with Death (a woman) that won't return his love. Tragedy and heartbreak would ensue, death would be everywhere. Seems just like their stuff, only, you know, abstracted to a ridiculous point.